


How We Got Here

by whoovestrings



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Fake AH Crew, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Trans Character, immortal au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 06:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5529419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoovestrings/pseuds/whoovestrings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fake AH Crew share their past lives with others</p><p>(Jack uses she pronouns and Michael uses they pronouns)</p><p>Note: The first two chapters contain mentions of slavery, the second more so than the the first, so if you dont want to read that, just be aware</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ryan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [onehellofashipper on tumblr](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=onehellofashipper+on+tumblr).



“I’m older!” Gavin shouted as he stormed into the kitchen one morning. Geoff groaned, _not this again._

“Okay,” Ryan said simply, “What makes you so certain this time?” He was obviously trying to be intimidating, but the lack of a mask, or face paint, and the addition of pyjamas, and a still sleeping Ray made him look a lot less scary than usual.

“I found you, on a history site!” Gavin said gleefully, taking a few sheets of paper from behind his back to show to the rest of the crew. They had quite a lot of sources, and it seemed legitimate, as far as anyone else could tell.

“Did you…” He read off of the sheets, “Get fame from days as a gladiator?” a nod from Ryan indicated that that was correct. “And was this, perchance, the time you realised you were immortal?” Another nod.

“It says that your first fights took place just after the “Colosseum” was built. Is this true?”

“I don’t know, Gavin,” Ryan rolled his eyes, “It was millennia ago, I’ve forgotten the details. I think I was one of the first “Celebrities” at the Colosseum, so you could be right.”

“HA!” Gavin shouted. “There, you see. I’m the oldest. I was born lifetimes before the Amphitheater was built!”

“Ryan, you were a gladiator in your first life?” Jack asked, “You’ve never told us that, I don’t think.”

“Why do you think I’m so easy with killing?” Ryan shrugged, knocking Ray, who woke up quickly, a look of panic fleeting his face. “Morning, dear,” he added, earning a small frown from Ray.

“Yes, I was quite famous in the day.” He remembered for the first time in what must have been decades. “I could never seem to lose a match. I would have a seemingly fatal injury, but keep coming up for more,” He paused for breath, and to make sure that everyone was taking it in, “A specialty of mine was waiting till they thought I was defeated. The audience would give the thumbs down, or rather, thumbs up, and I would get up and take them down in one hit” He sighed, “The audience loved it.” 

The crew seemed eager for more details, but Ryan didn’t seem to want to focus too much on the fighting. “I won my freedom quickly, mind you,” He continued, “but I stayed as a Gladiator for years. It paid well.”

“Wait, freedom?” Ray asked, “Why did you need freedom?”

“Do you not know who Gladiators were?” Gavin asked, and there was a fair amount of confusion around the room. “Gladiators were more often than not slaves. They had to fight, because they had no other choice. The audience went absolutely bloody mad over the fact that they could pay to see people that were worthless in their eyes kill each other for sport.”

“But yeah,” He continued, “You didn’t really stay a slave for long, why, you became quite a celebrity for your time!” The crew seemed rather surprised by that, and Gavin smiled slyly, and giggled, “You were quite a hit with the ladies, and the men, weren’t you?” Ryan blushed and Ray looked up at him.

“What do you mean?” He asked, and Ryan sighed before answering.

“I was kind of like the sports stars today, nothing more.” Ryan answered quickly, looking away from Gavin, “People… Liked me, let’s say”

“Oh they really liked you,” Gavin teased, but quickly stopped once Ryan glared at him.

“What did you do after you stopped being a gladiator, Ryan?” Jack asked, trying to draw the conversation away from an eventual fight between Ryan and Gavin “You must have not been a Gladiator for long. People would notice you didn’t age after a while.”

“Ah, yes. Well, as I said, being a gladiator paid well. Really well. I went on a ship and traveled the world. That is easier said than done, mind you, and I had to gain money by rather unscrupulous methods. It was far too easy to become an assassin in those times. Everyone had a list three feet long of people they wanted dead. You could say I became a knife-for-hire, and a rather good one at that.”

“So when we found you as a mercenary,” Geoff asked, “you had been at that job for longer than we had lived?”

“Basically, yes.” Ryan answered “I was quite good, back in the day, never failed a mission. Smoke, they said I was, impossible to catch, impossible to kill. Some knew me as the Dark God.” At this, Gavin scoffed, to which Ryan raised an eyebrow. “It was quite theatrical, I know, but when have you ever expected anything less from me?”

“Nah, not that,” Gavin explained “just, was your main god Nyx then?”

“Nox, rather, but since you refuse to accept gods that aren’t your own, yes, it was Nyx.”

“Hey!” Gavin complained, “I have good reason to refuse your gods, seeing as you just took ours and ruined them.”

“Okay, let’s not get into this again” Jack sighed, stepping between the two of them and pushing them slightly away from each other “Both of your Gods are legitimate, and have to ability to co-exist. Ryan, why don’t you just continue your story?”

“Thank you Jack,” Ryan said, looking over to Gavin, who scowled. “But honestly, there’s not much left to say about myself.”

“Is there anything about ancient times that you miss, Ry?” Ray asked, and Ryan thought over the answer for a while.

“People were a lot more accepting back then, I think.” He answered. “Though I have to admit, I don’t miss the sickness and disease that came with no-one knowing anything about medicine” He paused to think, “The weapons are good now too. I don’t really know how I lived without the existence of rocket launchers.”

“How much do you know,” Ray asked, “If you’ve been around the world, and you’re so old?”

Ryan chuckled, “It’s not nice to call people old, Ray,”

“Sorry,” He apologized, “I’m tired. I stayed up till about… four? Maybe five? Playing Fallout”

“You have fallen asleep on me several times in the past hour,” Ryan pointed out “don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

“I think a bigger clue that I wasn’t getting sleep is the fact that I wasn’t in bed with you last night, but okay” Ray said.

“Yes that was a small hint.” Ryan smiled, “But yes, I do know quite a lot, due to my extended stay on this earth. That’s not to say my knowledge is of any use in a practical sense. At best, it helps Michael and Gavin win Pub quizzes.”

“And we always win!” Gavin cried, “That’s partially because of you, but partially because I actually pay attention to what’s going on in the world. Sure you’re the “be all, end all” to history, and technology, and geography, and a lot of other things, but you actually didn’t know who Kermit the frog was!”

“Look,” Ryan said, “The dealings of a frog puppet are of no use to me.”

“And neither are the dates of when the lightbulb, the telephone, and the radio were invented,” Ray laughed, “But you sure memorised them.”

“Look,” Ryan said “We’re getting off topic here. I think one of the things I would miss, if I went back to when I was born, would be you guys.”

“Aww” Geoff cooed “That’s sweet. Y’know, I still remember when we hired you, it wasn’t that long after we hired Ray.”

“I didn’t really get officially hired, remember, you just kept calling me in for jobs, and eventually, I stayed. I always wondered why I kept getting called back. I deliberately messed up a heist, to test you guys, surprisingly, you still kept me.”

“Trust me” Geoff said, “It was 100% Ray. He clung to you like ivy the first time you were here.” Ray was scowling at Geoff, who laughed and continued, “He would always ask about you, “Who was that guy we hired last heist? You know, the hot one. Ryan, that’s a cute name.” “Who’s this guy, he’s not Ryan.” “Ryan could have done that better than that guy, why don’t we get Ryan back?”” By this time, Ray looked like he was trying to melt into Ryan’s side, and his face was burning red.

“Eventually,” Geoff said, “We decided to bring you back. Ray damn nearly exploded when we told him”

“I wasn’t that bad” Ray mumbled, but it was muffled by Ryan’s hoodie.

“Sorry mate,” Gavin laughed, “But you really were.”

“If you think he was bad when we hired him,” Jack interjected, “You should have seen him when he saw you shirtless for the first time.”

Ray’s head snapped back up. “Look” He defended, “It was also the first time I had seen him without the mask and face paint, and I saw the scars, so there’s that.”

“Scars?” Gavin inquired “You mean the one between his shoulder blades?”

“No,” Ray explained, and traced where Ryan’s scars would be on his body, about half way down his chest.

“Oh,” Ryan realised, “My surgery scars! That’s another thing I like about modern times. You can have surgery performed without your body thinking it’ll kill you.”

“Face and scars aside though,” Ray shrugged, “you still have really nice abs, and I will always appreciate that.”

“Thank you dear” Ryan smiled, and kissed the top of Ray’s head, which got a mixed reaction of “aww”s and “get a room”.


	2. Gavin

It was later in the day. The crew had just gone over the plan for a new heist. Gavin was driving with Michael to get supplies, and then probably go make out somewhere. They weren’t needed until the heist started after all, and that wasn’t for another few hours.

“I heard you were talking about Ryan’s past this morning,” Michael said, glancing at Gavin.

“Yeah, while you were still sleeping,” Gavin laughed, and Michael shrugged.

“You guys get up early,” they said, “I got up in time for the important stuff, and that’s all Geoff cares about.”

“Ray was awake before you” Gavin pointed out, “And he normally doesn’t wake up before midday.”

“Okay, okay” Michael said, “I slept in. What’s important though, is that you are now officially older than Ryan! Feel good about that?”

“Well, I always knew I was, to be honest,” Gavin said, “But now I have proof, and yeah, I do feel rather good about it.”

“How much are you older than Ryan?” Michael questioned, and Gavin thought about it for a moment.

“Centuries, must be,” He answered “I mean, I was already “Free” When the Romans even became relevant.”

“I’ve always wondered about that,” Michael said, “You always say you “became Free” but I don’t think you’ve ever told us why.”

“I’ve not told you?” Gavin asked, seeming surprised when Michael shook his head no, “Well, I was kinda a rebel leader when I was younger.” Michael’s eyebrows raised at that, and Gavin realised that he was probably going to have to elaborate.

“I wasn’t really “Free”, more “Immunis” but I don’t think that name was really going to be accepted once people stopped speaking Latin.” He explained, “I got the title, if you’d like, because I stood up to, and brought down one of the most hated slave traders of the time, Venalicius, I think. He’d abduct people in the streets. Sometimes it was adults, but most of the time, his victims were helpless little kids. Bloody Romans.”

He’d paused to see if Michael was going to say something, but it seemed they just wanted to hear the rest of the story.

“Well, I was taken, of course,” He continued, “I was kept for quite a while, no-one wanted me for some reason. Probably for the best, actually. I’m not going to go into the details about it, but trust me when I say that he was an asshole, and if I was taken in by some nice rich person, no way would I have felt so strongly about it all.”

“This was after I had already been alive for hundreds of years, so I had a lot of stories to tell. And maybe the stories inspired people, maybe it was because I was the only one who would talk in the long silences that were really common when no one had anything to do, but people looked up to me in a way. I was the reminder of the fact that there was something to live for.”

“After so many years of putting up with his shit, I eventually decided that I’d had enough. Admittedly, I may have lied, and stole some weapons from some citizens that didn’t really deserve it, but I rallied a small army in the week we stayed in Macedonia.”

“How did you actually take him down?” Michael asked, turning into the car park outside the weapons store, “Like, did you have just slaves like you, or were you able to convince citizens to join your cause?”

“There was a small amount of people that were freeborns, but it was mostly Venalicius’ slaves, yeah. There was a few dozen of us, and I had the luck of being chosen to be “on display”, if you’d like.” He paused the story for a second to let Michael concentrate on parking, before continuing. “I was causing a right ruckus, I was; complaining, whining, generally being a pain, so he really didn’t pay much attention to me, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve been “killed” if the plan didn’t work.”

“We were all chained up, see, and he was the only one with the key, but I had managed to charm some nice man out of his dagger about a week back, so the chains were broken. It was a simple matter to drop them, get the keys whilst he wasn’t looking, and free everyone.”

“So, you freed, like a dozen people,” Michael said, rolling their eyes, “I mean, good job, but not really title-worthy, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t just free the slaves there that day,” Gavin said “I flat out killed the most hated man in Greece. I freed everyone “belonging” to him, and I went on to free so many more. Over the course of half a century, I freed hundreds, bordering on thousands of people!”

“Okay,” Michael admitted, “That’s impressive, sorry I doubted you, boi. I do have one question, why’d you turn to a life of crime if you spent so long doing good?”

“It’s not as simple as that,” Gavin said, “It wasn’t a simple change, it was a slow transition. Sure, I was a borderline celebrity, but I still wasn’t even officially a freedman, so I couldn’t get a job. I took from those weren’t going to miss it, and sometimes I hired myself out as a thief. Sometimes people only claimed they were looking for a thief, and they wanted me for… different reasons, but whatever buys food, buys food.”

Michael’s mouth was open in surprise, “You were an ancient Greek whore?” They asked, barely stifling a laugh.

Gavin cringed, “Yes, but don’t announce it publicly.”

Michael snickered, “Explains why you’re so good, you had practice.”

“Hey!” Gavin cried out, offended, “I would’ve had practice even if I didn’t do that. I had a life before you y’know. Quite a long one at that.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Michael said, looking the shelves of the store up and down for the right things they needed for home-made explosives. “Y’know, I think Geoff mentioned that your ability to steal was what got you in the crew.”

“Yeah, I took a big risk, that I guess payed off.” Gavin recounted, “I came to Achievement City a while ago. I thought I could make a bit more out of my career there. Surprisingly, I   
don’t think I had heard of the Fakes at that time, they were feared, but not outside the state, and definitely not outside the country.”

“After living there for a while, I knew who they were, and I knew their reputation, so I made it my goal to best them. Take stuff they need, interrupt their heists, I was immortal, they couldn’t do anything about it.” He laughed, “Y’know, I think they thought they just had really bad aim when it came to me, because when it became obvious that they couldn’t kill me, they were well shocked.”

“When about did they find out, then?” Michael asked, handing Gavin some instant cold packs and newspapers, so that they could get their wallet. Gavin was a little confused about how these would make explosives, but after years of knowing Michael, he’d learnt to not question them about these things.

“Well I guess going directly into their apartment really wasn’t a good idea,” The brit admitted, “But I had to. It would embarrass them so much. Turns out, they were home at that time, and they were pretty pissed at me. I was shot, and I think they thought I was mad when I shrugged it off. It didn’t take long to fix, mind you, they somehow managed to miss all organs, and I died purely of blood loss. That hurts like a bitch, let me tell you. Geoff was going to dump my body in, like, a fire or something, but I just got up and tapped him on the shoulder. He was surprised, to say the least. I guess he went inside to discuss it with Jack and next thing you know, I’m in the crew. I don’t think they trusted me much really, but I was better at taking things, rather than forcing people to give them to you, so they got used to me, and couldn’t get rid of me after that.”

Michael had taken everything from Gavin, and as they headed out the door, Michael rolled their eyes.

“You don’t know what these are for, do you?” They asked, and grinned when Gavin shrugged and shook his head.

“Look, I’m going non-lethal this time, at least partially.” They said, “This is apparently good for smoke bombs, Make whatever science-y stuff is in here a liquid, soak the newspapers in in, dry ‘em, tie ‘em up, and disguise them as normal newspapers. Shit’s so volatile, you could shoot it and it goes up in so much smoke. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

Gavin checked his watch, “It’s still just six. Geoff said we’re going for a night heist, right? So we still have three hours to go. Anything else on the agenda?”

“Picking up radios, making these, getting dinner, Ray’ll probably want to co-ordinate out outfits, so there’s that.”

“Well,” Gavin said, “I think there’s a safehouse just up ahead we could use, it has back-up radios and I think there’s food.”

“We gonna be dining on Gavin cooking tonight?” Michael laughed, and Gavin scoffed.

“Excuse you,” He said sarcastically, “but nothing is better than tea of instant noodles, and chicken nuggets.”


	3. Geoff

Geoff didn’t know whether it was good or bad that he was paired up with Ray for heist prep. On one hand, he was normally quieter than the other Lads, and didn’t put up much of a fuss about anything. On the other, he was determined, and when he asked a question, he wanted an answer.

“Are we your first crew?” He asked, as they drove around, looking for cars that would fly under the police radar.

“Fist crew?” Geoff parroted, “Hell no. First crew I’ve been the boss of, yeah.”

Ray was silent for a second, and Geoff thought that was the end of it, but then he started back up again.

“What was the crew you were first in? Like, were they from your original life, or were you on the lawful side until you died?”

“Original life, no doubt about it,” Geoff said simply, “It was where I was first killed. I was part of The Roosters, toughest gang around. It was the 1920s or so, so we made most of our money from illegal liquor trade. We were small. Smaller than the fakes, but still quite a bit of a force to be reckoned with.”

“1920s eh?” Ray wondered “was anyone else in your crew… y’know”

“Immortal?” Geoff finished, “Nah, I’m the only one left. I miss those guys sometimes.”

“Who were they?” Ray continued, “They could still be around and you just don’t know about them.”

“Nah, they’re gone.” Geoff shrugged, “Unless it takes weeks to recover from bullet wounds, they’re gone. Bit of a surprise to everyone actually. We all thought we were invincible…” He trailed off. “I still remember them. I remember too much about them. There was five of us. Matt, Burnie, Gus, Joel, and me. 

“Matt was our leader. He brought us together, and he was the driving behind all of our activities. He would have everything under control, however unlikely that would seem, and sometimes, I would wonder how he could do it. Especially now I have you guys to take care of.” He rolled his eyes and laughed. “Nah, you guys are good. I do believe Matt was the last to go, if only because we wouldn’t let anyone get to him at any cost.”

“Burnie was the guy who planned the singular things. Matt would give him a list of things we had to do, and Burnie would know how to do them. His plans seemed to almost never fail, and though we were all… good at planning and stuff, we would have never gotten to the level we were at if not for him. Even aside from that, he was the last person you would expect to be a criminal, to the public, and to criminals who didn’t know who we were, he was the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet. But when he got angry, god did he get angry.” Ray pointed out a car sitting on the side of the road. It could fit the entire crew in it, which was exactly what they were looking for. Upon closer inspection, the car had a For Sale sign in the window. “Yeah, when someone was in our way, or if, by some chance, they hurt someone, God help them, because Burnie wouldn’t quit until they’d been dealt with.”

“Gus was the guy who would know everything, and you wouldn’t question why. He could get his hands on anything he wanted, and we always low-key wondered how he did it. I think we asked him once or twice. I don’t think we ever got an answer. When something potentially useful happened, he would be on it instantly. There was a drive-by attack on a restaurant in a city on the other side of the state? He’d know within the day. Some store had started selling tommy guns, the first in the city to do so? Didn’t matter, he’d already got some for half the price they were selling them. Speaking of, Gavin needs a short ranged weapon that’s easy to conceal. You couldn’t call him and tell him he needs to get that himself, could you?” 

Ray needed and took his phone out of his pocket, sitting sideways on the seat of the motorcycle and bringing up Gavin’s number on speed-dial, watching as Geoff glanced around to see if anyone was watching before opening the door.

“Hey Vav,” Ray said, after Gavin picked up, Gavin sounded annoyed, though Ray could not tell why, “You need to get a pistol or something for the heist.” He heard Gavin groan on the other end of the line, and he could hear Michael asking who it was. Michael’s voice was quite close to the receiver, and it suddenly clicked why Gavin wouldn’t really want to leave right now. He quickly checked his watch, “You’ve a few hours yet, so you can finish doing whatever it is you’re doing.” Then hung up once he had gotten conformation from Gavin.

Ray walked up to Geoff, and got into the front passenger seat, “Gavin said he’ll get a gun, but there’s a large chance he and Michael have been banging, so if they’re not at their usual standard, you’ll know why.”

Geoff rolled his eyes, “I never finished telling you about my crew.” He said, “Joel was the last guy. He handled finances. While we all had slightly different motives for being criminals, he was in it purely for the money. He was ahead of everyone and everything when it came to that, and he was one of a kind. He managed to raise prices for everything we sold, be it liquor, information, or even when other gangs hired us to help them, yet still kept customers coming in. He was also always so invested in the stock market. I mean, now-a-days, it’s no big deal, but back then, boy was it big. I’m pretty sure about 60% of Joel’s wealth came from stocks and shares, and only 40% actually came from the crew’s activities”

“How did anyone stop you?” Ray asked, “You sound like you were invincible”

“We were. Until we got got by some other crew. They must have been planning it for ages, because I have never heard of a better execution strategy than what they had. They seemed to know everything about us. They took out Gus first, and without him, any hope of communication was gone. Joel was next, then Burnie, then me, then Matt. They must have taken a while to get Matt, because I was back soon enough to hear of his death. Soon enough to be there as it happened. We were away from each other for a week, off to do our own thing, take a break from being a criminal. I was out of state, and I didn’t hear of what was happening until they had taken out Joel. I got back, and I guess I was playing right into their hands. Burnie had told Matt to not go after them. That he would go for them, so they only had one to deal with at a time. “

“They killed us all in the same way. A bullet to the back of the head. I still have the scar, but you can’t really see it. They killed Gus and Joel in their own homes, Burnie and I in some abandoned warehouse, they must have waited a few days, maybe to make sure the coast was clear, in case there was anyone they hadn’t heard of, maybe they didn’t know where he was. Either way, I came to a few hours before he was dragged in, unconscious, I don’t know why they didn’t just kill him where he was, they probably wanted information, or money. He didn’t give them either, so they killed him. I was killed a second time a few seconds after he was, because I thought I could fight them” He chuckled. “They were pretty scared after that, left a guard with us there for a few weeks. I learnt to stop coming back about the fifth time I was killed that way.”

Ray was speechless. But Geoff continued.

“I guess after I didn’t come back for a week, they decided that was me done for. Thankfully, they didn’t know anything about the location of our finances, but I knew where Joel kept his files. It’s pretty easy to live a normal civilian life with the wealth gained from a criminal gang.”

Geoff was silent for a few seconds, and in that time, Ray realised that he should probably go out to the bike, and follow Geoff to wherever their next destination was. As he did so, his phone beeped. He opened it up, and it was a picture from Gavin. Michael was fully clothed, and sleeping on the couch, looking as if he really didn’t plan to be asleep, but he did so anyway. There was a few messages afterwards, which read

Vav: I guess I’m going to get the gun now.  
Vav: You want matching outfits? I’ll get them while I’m out.  
X-Ray: We should go undercover. Pretend to be a gang of cool teenagers.   
Vav: Ray, you, me, and Michael could pass as teens, and maybe Jack, and Ryan at a stretch, but Geoff’s a few decades off being a “cool teenager”.   
X-Ray: Geoff’s going to be the “cool dad” that hangs around, and made sure that the rowdy teens didn’t break the law or anything.   
Vav: What’ll we need to pull off the look? You’re the closest to being a teenager of any kind, you know what todays fashion is like, right?  
X-Ray: Well, I mostly dress as an overgrown teen, so follow my lead.  
Vav: What? Graphic tees, hoodies, and skinny jeans?  
X-Ray: Yeah p much.


	4. Ray

The heist hadn’t exactly gone to plan. The gas station had been robbed, they got all the money they had planned to get, but Michael’s explosives had failed to go off, and there was far too many cops in one area. Jack had managed to get Michael, Geoff, and Gavin out of the area, but Ray had been stationed on top of a multi-storey car park, and Ryan had been slowly moving towards him when there was more cops than anticipated.

They met up at about the fifth floor, exchanging quick hellos before looking around for a car they could claim as their own. They found one and sat down in the front seats, Ryan taking off his mask in case any police officers came by.

“Ray,” he said, his voice low and serious, “Take off your binder, I can tell you’ve been wearing it far too long, and the cops won’t recognise you as quickly.”

“Dude,” Ray laughed. “I can’t just take it off. I don’t have a bra on me. And anyway, I’ve only had this on since…” Realisation flashed across his face. It was 10. He had had it on since before midday, “Okay, maybe I do need to take it off.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and took the drawstring bag from his back, before pulling out a bra and giving it to Ray.

“Thank you rye-bread, what would I do without you?” He said, attempting to change in the limited space allowed by the car.

“Probably have really bad ribs,” Ryan pointed out, “But then again, when you die, it resets, so you wouldn’t be in that much trouble.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, using the make-up wipes in Ryan’s bag to get rid of both Ryan’s face paint and Ray’s fake stubble.

“I don’t have a backstory,” Ray blurted out suddenly, “I mean, I was thinking about how you told everyone about when you were young this morning, and Geoff did too when we were getting the car. I just, there’s not much to me. I have a normal human lifetime. I’m barely three years older than I look.”

“I’m sure there must be something to you.” Ryan reassured, “Everyone has a story, and yours must be as interesting as anyone in the crew’s”

“Well… I’ve lived in New York all my life, and we were never really that well off, so of course, I stuck in at my education, hoped to get a good job,” he laughed, “That was pretty much a waste, wasn’t it. Before I came here, I worked in a GameStop, so I was kinda disappointed by that. I knew I had to make some more money somehow, so I saved up and came here, I wasn’t really hoping to become as big as this actually, I didn’t even know I was a good sniper actually. I didn’t know I needed glasses until Michael said I did.”

“Why did Michael tell you that you needed glasses?” Ryan asked, and Ray remembered that he hadn’t been around when he joined the crew.

“Michael told me pretty much everything about living here. They found me trying to pick someone’s pocket in a bar, and told me I was doing it all wrong. It became a tradition of sorts. I would go to the bar, they would be there, we’d rob as many people as we could without getting caught, and split the money “50/50” but I’m pretty sure they gave me like 60% at least. I’m sure they though I needed it more than them. I’m sure I did.”

“It was all fine and dandy until I got caught. There was this tough looking guy who left his wallet on the counter. I grabbed it and I think he broke my fingers. He took me out back and long story short, I got a lesson about not taking other people’s property. That lesson came in the form of two bullets lodged in my chest. He was a horrible aim, I was barely conscious, and he was three feet away, yet he still managed to miss one shot, and got me in the stomach, and in the chest. I’m pretty sure Michael beat that guy up. I sure they would’ve got the entire crew on him, if I didn’t recover so fast.”

“If I remember correctly, the guy came back in, bragging about how he got rid of “that pest”. Michael must have realised it was me, so they asked him if they could see who it was, because I’d taken their stuff or something, the guy must have been a real dumbass, because he lead Michael into the shady alley, and got his ass kicked. I think I woke up at about the same time he went out. I asked Michael what they were doing. They said that he had killed me, no big deal. I guess that was the point that they remembered they didn’t know I was immortal. They explained that I should be dead, but obviously, I wasn’t.” 

“They gave me their number, and told me they would call when they needed me. About a week later, I get a call. “Meet me at the bar, I don’t care that it’s Wednesday, do it.” So I did, and they took me from the bar to Geoff’s apartment. I was dragged along on one heist, then Michael took me back every time, and then I ended up staying in the guest room afterwards, and I guess there was a point where I spent more time in Geoff’s apartment than my own, and I guess that was the moment I became part of the crew.”

“What they were saying this morning, was it true?” Ryan asked, and Ray thought back, then sighed and nodded in shame. “So you really wanted me to be a part of the crew?”

“It’s more than that.” Ray explained, “When I was called up for my first heist, I was honestly terrified. I thought I was just not used to it, it would get better over time, so I just kept coming back, and it didn’t get better. I was actually going to leave when you came. I don’t know what it was about you, but you just seemed… safe. You also seemed so careless when you were doing your job, almost like you enjoyed it, I guess I just went along and followed your example. I remembered I was immortal, and nothing I did had consequences. I wanted you back so badly because you were almost my reminder, a reminder that I could do anything and that nothing was stopping me. I wouldn’t say that was the reason I loved you, but I think it certainly helped.”

“When you started becoming a regular with the crew, that’s when I fell for you, I think. At the time, you seemed perfect. Of course there was the safety thing, but I could also teach you about all the things about modern times that you didn’t know about. I introduced you to anime, remember. That was probably a bad idea, but still.”

“Remember when you told me about Nintendo games” Ryan offered “and Geoff got so angry because he lost the Mario kart tournament.”

“I won that,” Ray bragged, “and it had always been my crowning achievement of being here.”

“But then Geoff made you play monopoly with him” Ryan chuckled, and Ray moaned.

“Don’t bring that up, I’d like to forget it ever happened.” He complained, then spotted something out the window. A few police officers were searching through the car park with a torch. When they spotted Ray and Ryan, they headed over.

“Story?” Ray asked quickly.

“Dinner, we’re scared. Glasses off.”

Ray slipped his glasses of and pulled his hoodie over his face. The police officer knocked on the window, and Ryan rolled it down.

“We need to ask you a few questions, if you wouldn’t mind,” the officer said. And Ryan told them that that was okay.

“You do realise the car park has been closed for an hour now.” The police officer said, and Ryan looked at his watch.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Ryan said, “We were just getting back from dinner in the town, we were going to go home, but with the commotion happening, we thought we had better stay here. Is it safe to go now?”

The officers re-assured him that it was okay, although they had heard reports that there was gunshots fired from the roof, and Ryan said that they had seen someone come down from the roof, but they didn’t know where they went. The police seemed to be satisfied with that, and they walked off. Once they had turned the corner, Ryan picked up his stuff, they got out of the car and crept down the stairs to the base of the car park. The street was eerily quiet after the ruckus that went down not an hour ago. They sat down on the curb, and Ray leaned his head against Ryan’s side.

“Were the outfits your idea?” Ryan asked as they waited, and Ray shrugged.

“Nah. That was Geoff,” Ray yawned, “All his idea.”

“Really?” Ryan raised an eyebrow, “Because I thought this was just an elaborate ploy to see me in skinny jeans.”

“Yeah, that too,” Ray mumbled, “You look good,”

A few minutes later, a car rounded the corner, and Gavin shouted out the window to the two on the ground. Ryan picked Ray up, and they got in the car, setting off to go back to the apartment, as both Ray and Michael were sleeping soundly, exhausted from the days activities.


	5. Jack

“So, Jack, what’s your story?” Gavin asked from the back seat of the car, Michael was barely conscious, leaning on the door, but he promised he wasn’t sleeping.

“My story?” Jack asked, glancing in the mirror to see if Gavin’s expression gave any hint as to what he was talking about.

“Yeah, Y’know, who you were before the crew. How you found us, that kind of thing.”

“Okay”, she said, turning her eyes back to the road. “Well, I’m nowhere near as old as you or Ryan, but I’m older than Geoff and maybe Michael? I don’t think I know much about them actually. We’ll find out when they’re awake.”

“I was born about two hundred years ago, in the early 18th century, so I experienced the tail end of the industrial revolution. I always liked technology, and I tried to keep up with it over the years. Strangely, I never thought that old tech was better than new stuff, only for the pure reason that it’s older, and people are accustomed to it. If you don’t know, and refuse to learn about new technology, you’re never going to get anywhere.”

“How’d you get killed the first time?” Gavin asked, and Jack paused for a second.

“Work related injury” Jack explained, “actually, not injury, more illness. I worked in a factory making led. Of course, it’s deadly poisonous, so it’s not the best thing to be handling without gloves, or sanitation of any kind really. That’s why I don’t have scars like you guys.”

“What did you do between your first death and joining us?” Geoff asked, as if he didn’t know the answer already.

“I didn’t go into crime at all in my life, until I met you of course, but until then, I stayed on the right side of the law. I was even once a police officer at one point. Aside from that, I just worked regular jobs, I worked in factories, in shops, all kinds of places really. I even joined in the war effort, as well as a girl could in those days. I worked in an artillery workshop for a while, and was part of the women’s land army.”

“When did you meet Geoff?” Gavin asked, after he processed al the information given to him.

“About 7 years ago now,” she said, “He wasn’t a very good criminal when I met him. He was trying to rob a gas station. Trying being the key word.”

“Hey!” Geoff complained, “I was out of practice! You can’t blame me!”

“Okay, okay, you were a bad criminal, we know,” Jack took her hand off of the wheel and patted Geoff’s shoulder condescendingly, and laughed when he grew annoyed.

“Yes, he was trying to rob a gas station, and he realised that although everyone had left, I was relatively calm. I wasn’t worried, even if he shot at me, I would get up again, and anyway, I had dinner in the oven and I needed to get my groceries quickly.”

“You asked me to not shoot him until you had bought everything.” Geoff said.

“I then realised it would be easier to just give the money to you,” Jack said, “I mean, you were going to steal it from him anyway. Well, you might have.”

“What was he doing?” Gavin asked.

“He let himself be seen by everyone,” Jack shook her head “and he had no plan to get away, he was genuinely going to run away from the cops that were being called. I pointed this out to him. He shot me. I said that he wasn’t really being nice. I guess that was when that clicked that I was like him.”

“I actually thought you genuinely didn’t know what was going on.” Geoff said.

“You thought I knew what was going on enough to ask for a ride.” Jack pointed out.

“By that time, you had taken a bullet to the chest and were still standing.”

“You asked me when we reached your place if I was in a gang, because how did I know about that. I said I wasn’t, and I wasn’t even a criminal, and it was probably common knowledge, you said it wasn’t, then asked me if I wanted to start a crew with him, as we could probably do better working together. I was at the time working a dead end job in a bar, so I decided to think it over. It took me a full week to “decide”. I wasn’t really thinking it over, I was changing my life to being in a gang. Getting a new identity was by this point second nature, I’d been doing it for well over a hundred years.”

“It was just us for a long time actually. It was ages before you-” She looked in the mirror at Gavin “-interfered, and honestly, I think a larger crew is better. We’re like a family, of sorts.”

“Before we got Michael, you were treating me like your kid!” Gavin complained.

“We still do” Geoff smiled, and pointed to a certain turn on the road. “Down there”  
They turned down the street, and found Ray and Ryan sitting on the floor. Ray was sleeping. At this point, Michael had stopped trying to convince everyone they were awake. Ryan took Ray into the car and set him down between Gavin and Michael, before climbing in the boot himself.

“These cars are much better.” He pointed out. “It saves us the risk of hanging on to the roof.”

Ray had naturally slumped onto Michael, and Ryan and Gavin shared a glance and a smile.

“I never thought the crew would get big enough to need that many seats.” Jack said.

“How many of us is there now?” Ryan asked. “What with us and B-Team.”

Geoff counted on his fingers, “There’s us 6, Jeremy, Caleb, Lindsay, Kdin, Matt, Steffie, and Kerry. 13 of us. Wow”

“And to think it started out with just the two of us.” Jack sighed.

It was late when they got back to the apartment, and when Jack looked at her crewmates, she realised they were sleeping peacefully, the only exception being Ryan, who was had a reputation for not being a heavy sleeper, or much of a sleeper at all. She didn’t want to wake anyone, but she doubted even Ryan could lift Geoff, so she woke him up as well.  
Geoff was startled awake, and took a few seconds to realise they were home. Jack silently pointed to the snoozing Lads, and Geoff took the hint. Jack took Gavin, whilst Geoff got Ryan opened the boot for Ryan, who took Ray, which left Geoff with Michael. He silently cursed inside, because he was not feeling up to carrying anyone at all, but at least Gavin and Ray were only over 100 pounds soaking wet.

Eventually though, the Car was destroyed in some scrapyard somewhere, the earning from the heist were stowed away safely. Ryan had smiled slightly as he set off the remaining explosives that hadn’t been triggered in the heist, knowing that no-one probably got hurt from them, but they still looked amazing from the view from their apartment. As usual, Jack told him he was weird for taking enjoyment out of explosions, but had to admit, they were beautiful. As Jack headed off to bed, Ryan debated staying in the lounge, watching a movie, and falling asleep on the couch, before deciding it would be better to just go back to Ray, as there was little chance the boy would be awake during the night, not after the events of the day, and the late night yesterday.

Gang members probably didn’t normally consider each other a family, but there was no denying that there was no better way to describe themselves. It was till jarring to think that it had started as a purely business partnership, and now, it was far too accurate to say that they were all as thick as thieves, and they were going to stay that way for a while.


	6. Michael

Michael woke up feeling something other than pure exhaustion, which was a relatively new feeling, one that they knew wouldn’t last, and would miss it when it was gone. The sun had been up for a few hours now, and Michael realised that they were up rather late. Not waking Gavin, who must have been exhausted from the heist, they went through to get something to eat. They weren’t that surprised to find Ryan and Jack already awake, whose conversations stopped as he stepped into the room.

“Michael” Jack said, “We need to talk to you.” Her tone was gentle, but still had the edge to it that told them that they would be in trouble if they didn’t talk back.

“We’re worried about you, Michael,” Ryan said, and Michael looked at him, confused. There was no reason to be worried about them. “We know you haven’t been getting sleep, at all.” So that was it.

“Look, guys, I’m fine,” Michael said, walking over to the cabinets to get some cereal and a bowl. “Anyway, Ryan, you can’t talk about not getting sleep.”

“I know I don’t sleep much, but I can function properly with the amount of sleep I get, you on the other hand…”

“I was doing well enough in the heist last night.” The red-head mentioned, “I held off the police, didn’t I? We got the money, right?”

“We did” Jack sighed “But if not for your immortality, you would be dead.”

Michael laughed, “If not for my immortality, I would have been dead centuries ago!”

“We know, but did you even notice how many bullet wounds you had?” Ryan said, and Michael thought about it. They didn’t think they did. They shook their head, it can’t have been that many.

“I counted at least a dozen wounds on you.” Jack said. “They’re gone now, of course, but they were there.”

“Well then maybe it’s a good thing I’m not getting sleep” Michael said, even though they knew that wouldn’t help their case in the slightest. “Pain doesn’t distract me.”

“There’s a reason for that, and we need to fix it.” Jack said, and Michael realised that they weren’t going to get out of it.

“Look.” Michael said, “I know there’s a reason, but it’s stupid, and I’m going to get over it.”

“It’s better if you share it with us, Michael,” Ryan said, glancing slightly behind Michael, to where Geoff had walked through, having been disturbed by the slight commotion.

“Dynamite here having issues?” Geoff asked, and Michael groaned.

“Look, if you really have to know, I’m conflicted.” Michael said, but when they saw the confused looks on everyone’s faces, explained further. “My brain thinks that I can only serve one person. I’m serving all of you right now and I don’t really know if I can, and if I did, I would care about one of you more than the others, and I don’t want that.”

“Wait, wait, backtrack,” Geoff said, “what do you mean by serve?”

“In my original life,” Michael explained, “I was a knight. I was born sometime in the 1560s, and I served one person all my life, some baron somewhere, it’s not important. It’s just that it’s been imprinted on me all my life that I need to be loyal to one person.”

“Look, Michael” Ryan said, gesturing for them to sit down at the table, opposite him. “I went through this too. Not as a knight, but as a gladiator. They are vastly different, but I think it may work. Think back to all the bad things about being a knight.”

Michael looked blankly at Ryan, “There’s nothing I can think of. Being a knight wasn’t all that bad of a job.”

“Think about your first death.” Ryan said simply, “That must have sucked.”

They did. Michael tried their hardest to remember how they died, then it hit them.

“It was one of my “friends”,” They recounted, “I was tasked with scouting out a camp that we thought was filled with enemy soldiers. It was. When we got there, we were ambushed. There was three people with me, and two people were in the same problem as I was. The third guy, turns out, was working with them, and I was knocked out and taken somewhere else, I can’t remember where, some cell in a village prison. We were kept there for ages, well I was anyway. They let the other two go rather quickly actually, I was a kind of prize. I was pretty much the best warrior there was. When I tried to get away, it was horrible. They knew far too much about how to take a person’s strength away from them, and how to make them hurt.”

At this point, Ryan was wearing a sympathetic smile, as Michael looked close to tears, and that was a state they hadn’t seen Michael in in a while. Jack had disappeared a while ago, but re-appeared with a sleepy Gavin and Ray, she sat them down on the couch, before returning to the table.

“Yo, what’s happening?” Ray asked, gesturing to Michael, who glanced up at him and tried to force a smile. “I think Michael wants you, Vav,” he mumbled to Gavin, who stood up and walked over to Michael, sat down next to them, and wrapped an arm around their shoulder.

“I don’t really want to go into much detail about what they did,” Michael said after a short period of silence “we’ve all been on one end or the other of a torture-interrogation session, we know the drill. Is that a negative thought enough Ryan?”

“Should work,” Ryan said, “It’s a process, but every time you think of being a knight, or anything of the sort, remember that. It should get rid of your need to be a knight. Either that, or pick someone in the crew you will serve. I’m not sure who you want that to be, but I’m sure there’s a certain British thief in our ranks who wouldn’t mind being your liege. I’m not saying that one option is necessarily better, or easier, than the other, it’s just that you have options now, and it will be easier to decide.”

Michael thought it over for a while, on the one hand, it would be easier to be Gavin’s knight than anyone else’s, but on the other, it might be better to ditch the knight tendencies altogether. They looked at Gavin, his expression unreadable.

“I think it’s best if I stop being a knight,” Michael concluded, “While I do love Gavin, and I will protect him anyway, I don’t want to go back to that. I hope you’re okay with that, boi.”

“Nah,” Gavin replied cheerfully, “It’s fine. We’re immortal, remember, I think I’ll do okay on my own.”

“Are you okay Michael?” Jack asked, and Michael nodded.

“Are you going to be able to sleep now?” Geoff laughed, and Michael replied yes, before yawning, which brought everyone to laughter.

“It’s probably better if you are sleeping tonight,” Ray pointed out, “If even one of us is awake, we aint getting presents tomorrow.”

“What do you…” Ryan started, before glancing at the calendar pinned to the board, which had the 23rd circled and “Heist” written in sharpie.

“You mean you haven’t gotten any presents?” Gavin said in mock astonishment, and he could see Geoff shifting uncertainly where he stood.

“I got presents,” Jack said, “I don’t know about you guys though.”

Gavin, Ray, and Michael agreed they had gotten gifts. Ryan said that he did, he just lost track of the time, and forgot it was so close. They all turned to Geoff.

“I- I’ve totally gotten you guys Christmas presents,” He said, “100% absolutely”

Surprisingly, they couldn’t find Geoff at all through the day, until he came back home at eight, a few shopping bags and some wrapping paper in each hand. The rest of the crew were watching some Christmas movie together, so he went to his room to put them away, before joining them on the couch. He’d watched this movie before, but he honestly couldn’t care less. He was with his crew, they were all safe and happy, and that was all that mattered.


End file.
